Happy Thanksgiving!

• I hope everyone is enjoying this holiday weekend!
• This will be a short week with school on Tuesday and Wednesday. There will be no school on Thursday and Friday due to the teacher's convention.
• Picture day will be Wednesday!
• Students are expected to be reading 20 min. each night. Parents it is beneficial for you to be picking a couple of evenings to listen to your child read and discuss the comprehension questions that I sent home.
• Grade 5 math students continue to review multiplication facts each night. 
• Have a great week everyone!

Week of Oct. 7-11

• I hope everyone is enjoying the super weekend!
• I have to say how much I enjoyed listening to the students share their recounts on Friday! Great job!
• We will have a health quiz on Monday. We have been reviewing over the last couple of days. Some of our topics will include the following: how to be a good communicator, how to deal with strong emotions, what to do when conflict arises, what causes them stress and strategies to help with stress, and what makes a good friend.
• The gr. 4 math assessments will be held Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Please make sure the students get lots of rest and have a good breakfast. The letter that Mr. Martin sent home included a web site with some sample questions for the students to try.
• Congratulations to the cross country team for a wonderful job at the meet last Monday. I am very proud of all of you!
• Canteen on Tuesday.
• Congratulations to everyone for their hard work during the school fundraiser.  Madison was the top seller with Colton N. placing third.  Way to go! It was quite a sight seeing Mr. Q and Mr. D shave off their hair on Friday.
• There will be no school on Monday, October 14th (Thanksgiving) and October 17 & 18th (Teachers convention).
• School pictures will take place on Wednesday, October 16th.
• Grade 5 math students will be finishing their quiz on Monday (some have already finished) on estimating strategies.  We had our mental math quiz last Wednesday. I would still encourage students to be reviewing their multiplication facts each night. Our goal in grade 5 is withing 3seconds. We will be having another quiz on these in a few weeks. It is important for the students to have a quick recall of these before we move into 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication.
• Book orders due on Friday.

Week of Sept.30-Oct. 4

• I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weekend!
• The cross country meet is on Monday and the students are reminded to dress warmly. Good luck to everyone! The event is being held in Cabot Park and the students are going by bus.
• Gr. 4 provincial math assessment will be held on Oct. 8 and 9th.  There was an information handout that was sent home at the end of last week. If you have any questions regarding the assessments, you can contact myself or Mr. Martin at the school.
• Gr. 5's will be having a math fact quiz on Wed. Oct. 2. We will be focusing on multiplication facts up to 9x9. We are continuing to work on estimation strategies throughout this week. One in particular that I introduced was the distributive property.  For example- 63x3 is the same as 60x3 plus 3x3 therefore 180 + 9= 189.   Or 345x4 is the same as 300x4 plus 40x4 plus 5x4 therefore 1200+160+20=1380. There will be a couple evenings this week of extra practice :o)
• Students are continuing our "Recount writing" this week. I am encouraging students to add supporting details to their writing.  They want to paint a picture in my (the readers) mind. I am feeling that good copies will be due on Friday. I will go over this due date with students Monday.
• Health will be wrapping up this week with a small quiz on Thursday or Friday. I will be sending home a review sheet with all students on Tuesday.
• Hot lunch orders due on Monday.
• Our class will be able to go to the canteen each and every Tuesday. Items vary in price from 50 cents to 1.50.
• Have a wonderful week!

Week of September 23-27

• I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!  Welcome to the first day of fall!
• Hot lunch orders are due tom.
• I am hoping the books are going to be in from the book order by the end of the week. Looks like there were some great books ordered.
• A reminder to be reading 20 min. each night. Parents don't forget to ask some of the comprehension questions that were sent home.
• On Thursday, we started brainstorming for our Recounts. The purpose of a recount is to tell about past events (personal or others' experiences). Some of the key features of a recount include the following: writing in first (I or we) or third (he, she, they) person. I noticed most students are writing in first person, the key events are in logical order with relevant details. Students will use transition words (first of all, secondly, next, after that, finally, etc.) to guide the reader through the writing. We will be working on how to write a great "lead" on Monday. We haven't decided on a due date for these yet.
• Grade 5 math students should be reviewing all math facts this week (x- 0-11). We will also be starting to look at how to use estimation strategies. Estimation is a useful skill in students' lives and to be efficient when estimating sums and differences mentally, students must be able to choose a strategy quickly. Three that we will be looking at will be: 1) Front-end rounding- for example thing for 37 +26, think: "30 and 20 is 50 and 7 and 6 is 14; 50 plus 13 is 63." 2) Compensation- this refers to increasing one value and decreasing the other. For ex. 355 +57 might be estimated as 30+60. 3)Compatible or friendly numbers- this strategy for addition involves looking for pairs of numbers that combine to make a sum that will be easy to work with. For ex. 25+47+75 think 25 and 75 is 100, so 100 and 47 is 147.
• We will be having our Terry Fox walk at the school on Thursday afternoon.
• Health posters are due this Monday. Students were to illustrate something that causes them stress and they need to show a strategy that helps them deal with this stressor.
• Have a great week everyone!

Week of September 16-19

• I would like to thank everyone for coming out to "Meet the Teacher" night. If you couldn't make it and have any questions, please contact me at the school.
• There will be no school for the students on Friday, September 20 due to a PD day.
• Hot lunch program starts this week.
• Book orders are due on Monday.
• Grade 5 math students should be reviewing all of the 5's, 2's, 9's, 10's, 1's, 0's, and the 3's multiplication facts each night this week.
• I would like students to be reading 20 min. each evening.
• We are reading Where the Red Fern Grows in class and the students are loving it! It would be great for parents to ask your child to talk about what is happening in the story. 
• I want to thank all of my students for all of their hard work this week and I am looking forward to another great one!

Week of Sept. 9-13

• Wow! What a great first couple of days. They felt like they were about five minutes long. The students worked so hard and were very respectful. What wonderful manners! I love it.
• In grade 5 math, we will be reviewing basic numeracy skills this week. This includes adding, subtracting, place value, and multiplication facts. I will be asking students to be reviewing the multiplication facts each night.  The grade 4 students have Mr. Martin for math this year.
• Meet the teacher night will be this Thursday evening starting at 6:30. I am looking forward to seeing everyone there. Thank you so much for returning the student information forms, answering my letter, and sending notes if there are going to be changes at the end of the day.
• Lunch orders will be due tom. morning (Monday) and I will be handing out the book orders tom.
• Each student will be getting their "reading passports" tom. I have explained these to the students on Friday and I will be reviewing them again tom. Basically, the students are required to read 20 min. each night for homework and then the parent/guardian initials the passport. When they finish the passport, they turn it in to me and they will receive a new book from the book order (five dollars or less). 
• I am looking forward to an awesome first full week of school with your children!

Welcome Back!

• I am so excited to see everyone on Thursday. I hope everyone is looking forward to getting back to school.
• Our "Meet the Teacher" night will be held on Thursday, September 12th. Time and schedule will be sent home from school. I hope to see everyone there.
• On the first day of school, I will be sending home a letter for parents to read and answer a few questions/add comments.  This will help me get to know your son/daughter better.
• Lunch orders will be sent home at the end of the week and they will start on Monday.
• On Thursday evening, I will be asking the students to take a paper bag and put 3 or 4 items into it that represents themselves. Please no valuables. I will present mine on the first day and they will present theirs on Friday.
• One more sleep! See you tom.!